architectural competitions

For the purpose of conservation and development of the territory system of Moscow Natural Complex, creating favorable conditions of life of Moscow citizens and improvements of ecological situation in the city, Government of Moscow organizes the International Contest for the concept development of Mnevniki area — natural site of preferential protection of the Natural-Historic Park “Moskvorezky”.

Objectives which the developed concept is to solve:

• Conservation of the environment, natural landscapes and historical-cultural sites;
• Conservation of plant and animal life;
• Creating conditions for leisure time activities (including mass leisure), conservation recreational resources and organizing rational organized use;
• Development and implementation of effective methods of nature protection and maintenance of ecological balance in conditions of recreation use of the territory.

During the contest the best site development concept will be chosen. Prize money of the contest amounts to 3,5 mln rubles and presupposes not more than three prizes, the amount of each is to be approved by the contest commission. The winner will be able to participate in the development of the Master plan of the territory.

The order of the architectural contest includes following steps:

• Publication of information on holding of the contest in Mass Media;
• The application for contest Participation is held within the period of March, 20, 2012 — April, 17, 2012 and is realized through registration procedure in section “On-line registration” at the site mpcontest.ru. The Participants shall leave their personal data following the information posted on the site and get the access to the files of Specification and Bid Documentation;
• Acceptance of contest works from the Participants is held within the period of April, 04, 2012 — May, 20, 2012and through the site mpcontest.ru;
• Clarification of the Specification could be provided to the registered Participants if require;
• The organization of exposition of the contest works provided by the Participants shall take place at the Architectural and Construction Center “Dom na Brestskoy” within the period of April, 21, 2012 — May, 20, 2012;
• Consideration of the works provided by the Contest Participants will be hold within the period of May, 21, 2012 —June, 03, 2012;
• Announcement of the successful bidder and notification about the contest results of the contest Participants shall be held within the period of June, 04, 2012 — June, 05, 2012;
• The awarding of the successful bidder shall be held within the period of June, 06, 2012 — June, 08, 2012;
• Distribution of the information on contest results in Mass Media.

More information
mpcontest.ru/en/main

OPENGAP organizes this open ideas competition seeking for innovative, cutting-edge, contemporary, proposals regarding a new concept for artistic inspiration spaces. Participants are invited to design a place focused on the rental of spaces that motivate creativity and concentration, allowing users to focus, inspire and develop their artistic ideas.

Each participant or team will define the location of their project, however, the proposal must justify the choice of the location. The competition is open to all architects, designers, architecture students and to people around the world interested in the topic. Competitors can subscribe individually or as a team of maximum of 5 people.

The proposal submission will consist of two digital images in .jpg format, not bigger than 5MB each.

Awards

• First Prize, 2000 Euro
• Second Prize, 700 Euro
• Third Prize, 400 Euro
• Mentions, Mentions will not have an economic prize.

Schedule

BEGINNING OF THE COMPETITION: April 9, 2012
QUERIES SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 6, 2012
REGISTRATION 1ST PERIOD: From April 9, 2012, until May 7, 2012
REGISTRATION 2ND PERIOD: From May 8, until June 4, 2012
REGISTRATION 3RD PERIOD: From June 5, until July 2, 2012
REGISTRATION 4RD PERIOD: From July 3, until July 24, 2012
COMPETITION REGISTRATION DEADLINE: July 24, 2012
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Until August 3, 2012
WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT: During September, 2012
AWARDING OF PRIZES: During September, 2012

For more information visit our website: opengap.net

Background
Tablet was founded in the year 2000 by Laurent Vernhes and Michael Davis, a pair of new-media veterans who were tired of predictable chain hotels and faceless hotel search engines. On the principle that today’s traveler needs fewer choices, not more, they set out to create a tightly curated list, showcasing only the hotels that matter — hotels with personality, hotels that obsess on the details, hotels where experience beats economy. That list, after a decade of evolution, makes up the selection of TabletHotels.com, the trusted source for extraordinary hotels around the world.

Objective
The natural next step, of course, is to open a hotel. Anyone with enough money can open a solid-gold luxury hotel. Tablet’s hotel would be up for a conceptual challenge, tackling what might be hospitality’s hardest problem: creating a hotel that brings people together — where experience is shared, friendships are born, business contacts are established, and real human connections are made, all under the hotel’s roof.
We are proposing an architectural challenge, but also an experiment in human psychology. While entrants need not confine their solutions to physical space alone — there are technological ways of making connections as well — the focal point should be the place (or places) where hotel guests and city residents are brought together.
Think beyond the typical lobby bar, restaurant or pool deck, and draw inspiration from your own travels to design a space with the potential to revolutionize the ordinary hotel experience.

Registration Deadline: 29 May 2012
Submission Deadline: 30 May 2012

Open To: All
Entry Fee: Free
Awards: overall Prize Value up to $20,000

Contact
Contact Person: Nathalie Sonne
Address: jovoto, Inc, 1220 Broadway, 9th floor, New York, New York 10010, USA
Email: nsonne@jovoto.com
Website: jovoto.com/projects/rethink-hotels

Urban areas are quickly becoming the densest concentrations of human life on the planet and with that comes the well documented positive and negative impacts to local biodiversity and ecologies. But humans are not the only urban animals – squirrels, pigeons, mice, rats, crows, raccoons, beetles etc… are all species identified as synanthropes – animals that “live near, and benefit from, an association with humans and the somewhat artificial habitats that humans create around them.” These are highly-urbanized non-human animals and our potential design partners. Expanded hetero-cultures, urban agriculture, and a flexible, more resilient urbanism are all potential benefits of cross species collaborations. What other benefits exist?

SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT Animal Architecture wants your ideas about how synanthropic design can reshape, expand and redefine the context of urban thought and space. Submissions can include past work, current research and built or unbuilt projects. Projects should focus on solving, addressing or proposing urban issues and must actively incorporate at least one, if not more non-human design partners. Winning entries will be announced mid summer 2012 and will be eligible for publication and exhibition. Details to follow.

Register: May 13th 2012
Submissions: June 11th 2012
Cost: $35.00 USD for currently enrolled students, $100.00 for Professionals.

For more information visit animalarchitecture.org/2012-awards-urban-animal

In 2012, ParticiPlace’s challengers will design an off-grid living-culture center for the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN), a Native American nation in Northern California. The emphasis will be on a zero-energy building which is sensitive to the local culture and place.
The community is in the final process of re-purchasing ancestors lands where they hope to build the Living Culture Center to become a place to practice, preserve, and revive their culture for generations to come.

Schedule:
March 20: Competition opens
April 21: Site visit and workshop at the PPN (will be documented online for those who cannot attend)
June 10: Submissions due
September 4: Winners announced

First Prize: $3,000
Second Prize: $2,000
Third Prize: $1,000

In addition:
Sustainable Engineering Innovation Prize: $3,000
Social and Cultural Integrity Prize: $2,000

For more details check our website: 2012.participlace.org

Open Agenda is an annual competition aimed at supporting a new generation of experimental architecture. Open to recent graduates, Open Agenda is focused on developing the possibilities of design research in architecture and the built environment.

This national competition is intentionally broad in its scope, and dedicated to fostering new discussions on architecture in the public realm. An initiative of the School of Architecture at UTS, past winners have been graduates from Australian and New Zealand universities including, Sydney University, RMIT, Canberra University, UTS and Victoria University in Wellington, exploring a broad range of topics relevant to current Architecture discourse in Australia.

The Reward
Three proposals will be awarded seed funding of $2000 for development of their research proposal towards a publication and a public exhibition in Sydney in 2012 at Sydney Customs House to coincide with the Sydney Architecture Festival. The three teams or individuals will also have the opportunity to present a public lecture on their work in Sydney as part of the Sydney Architecture Festival events.

Terms and Conditions
Click here for full details, terms, and conditions.

Submission Requirements
1. Registration for competition and $50 fee by 27 May 2012, download here
2. Max 10 x A4 page illustrated proposal as a PDF (file size not to exceed 5MB) by 30 May 2012
3. Completed cover sheet by 30 May 2012

Dates
March 2012
Launch, Open Agenda 2012 registration opens

27 May 2012
Registration closes

30 May 2012 (midnight)
Deadline for proposals to be received

June 2012
Winners announced

24 October 2012
Public exhibition and launch Open Agenda 2011 Publication during Sydney Architecture Festival

More information: utsarchitecture.net/openagenda

The AJ invited Alan Dunlop to talk about sketching on 21st March at Kohn Pedersen Fox’s new gallery on Langley Street, London. Alan’s lecture was truly inspiring, showcasing Paul Rudolph, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, Ed Ruscha and many more. All fantastic pieces of work with their own interpretation, whether it was showing the whole landscape, a focused area, in black and white or full colour. In case you missed it, please feel free to download the presentation here.

Now it’s your turn! It can be any facade, building – iconic, industrial, shed, tower. We want to see what buildings inspire you – whether it’s the shape of the building, the textures, the landscape, you show us.

To enter the competition, please email your sketches and drawings to aj.competitions@emap.com, titling your email ‘Benchmark sketch’, or post them to: Stephanie Geisler, Emap, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7EJ.

The deadline for entries is Friday 18^th May.

The best will feature in the AJ and the winning sketch will receive £500.
The best sketch by a student will win an annual subscription to both the AJ and the Architectural Review.

We wish you the best of luck!

“Redesign of the existing cereals’ stock house building facilities (SILO) and its surrounding open space into a Museum for Underwater Antiquities  and Regeneration of part of the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) Coastal Zone – transformation into an open public space for outdoor activities”

The competition will be held in accordance with the current legislation (Decree 26804/2001 (b’1427/11),L 3316/2005), the terms of this document and all the decrees existed on the date of the announcement’s postage for publication on the E.C. Newspaper and local press.
According to these terms every one who is interested is kindly requested to submit an architectural proposal.

1. Project Owner – Contracting Authority – Competition Organizer
· The project owner is the Piraeus Port Authority (P.P.A . SA)
· The Competition Organizer is the Piraeus Port Authority (P.P.A. SA) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT)
· The Contracting Authority is the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA sa)

2. Competition Type
Open Architectural Competition Outline Design according to case b.2, paragraph 2, article 1 Decree 26804/2001 (b’1427/11). This project is very significant and constitutes a historical and cultural intervention to Piraeus Port.

3. Awards
Competition jury will award the prizes with gross amounts €118.000,00 according to the article 11 of Decree 26804/2001 as specified in the following table:
1st prize: €33.040,00
2nd prize: €28.320,00
3rd prize: €23.600,00
4th prize: €18.880,00
5th prize: €14.160,00

4. Study fee determination
The study fee specified up to 60% of the final study fee. The estimated fee for the final design study is up to €585.095,00

5. Terms
Eligible for participation are individuals or consortia formed of individuals or legal entities who throw recognition by the professional body in their country of residence and are entitled to use the occupational title of “Architect”. The submission verifies the applicant’s approval of the tender’s terms. The first prize-winner has to prove his eligibility to carry out the study in accordance with the current legislation. Otherwise he has to cooperate with the team that meets the eligibility requirements. This cooperation is subject to the competition organizer‘s approval.

6. Submission deadline, registration and documents provision
In order to facilitate the possible participants, all competition data is available on the official site of the competition at the following address piraeusculturalcoast.org.gr, though any alteration to the contents of the provided data is strictly forbidden. All submissions must be delivered to P.P.A. Head office, by 20 September 2012 at 12.00 p.m. After this time no entry is going to be acceptable.

7. Jury
The jury comprises 7 regular members and their corresponding deputy members. The selection of the jury members will be according to art.12 Decree 26804/2011

8. Language of Competition
The competition documentation is available in Greek and most of it is also available in English.
The Greek language documentation is the original and takes precedence over the English translation.
The texts in the competition proposals must be written in either Greek or English

9. Notices
The publication date of the Brief in E.U Publication Office is 30th March 2012.
The deadline for the applicants to receive the Brief and the Competition Documents is the 6th August 2012.
The deadline for the submission is on 20th September 2012 at 12:00p.m.
The deadline for the applicants to submit any queries is 14th May 2012.

Piraeus, ….

Chairman and Managing Director

Design Challenge
In today’s world creative ideas are becoming crucial to success of all populations especially when social, economic and technological issues are becoming more complex.  How can “innovative minds” be invigorated by an architectural design to promote solutions for our complex problems?

An architectural design needs to become a catalyst for the innovative mind within physical and or virtual environments.  This design needs to promote the human condition by inspiring the minds of the intended users to an unprecedented level.  This may be accomplished on any scale; micro or macro.  The designer will decide how to inspire users to develop or use their innovative minds directly or indirectly as a result of the architectural design.

Awards
$1000 + (10% of registration fees) to winning project.  Personal Profiles will be created on the Gurroo website promoting the authors of the winning project.  The winning project will also be showcased on Gurroo website for an extended period of time.

Honorable Mentions – 10 Projects will receive this award.  These awards will be determined by the preliminary judging conducted by Gurroo LLC and the Official Judging Panel with no association with Gurroo LLC.  Honorable Mention projects will be showcased on the Gurroo website.  Candidates will also be involved in the judging of the winning project.

Open Source Design Tools Donation
10% of Registration fees will be donated to an open source design programming organization to ensure the development of open source design programs.  These tools are encouraged to be used in the development of competition submissions.  A list of several programs may be found on the Gurroo website.

Registration
Registration must be completed by May 1, 2012.  Individuals or teams must pay a $30 fee.  The registration fee will be collected through Google Checkout.

Definitions
Innovative: The introduction of something new. A new idea, method or device. Mind: The part of an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons.

Site Selection
Any site may be chosen for the design competition.  Open site selection.

Eligibility
Open to all individuals and teams of up to 4 members.  Students and Design Professionals are encouraged to register.

Dates
January 2012 – Competition Requirements Announced
February 1, 2012 – Registration Begins
May 1, 2012 – Registration Deadline
June 15, 2012 – Submission Deadline
June 16- June 22, 2012- Preliminary Judging Evaluation by Gurroo LLC.
May 23-May 29, 2012- Official Judging Panel Evaluation
June 30-July 6, 2012- Honorable Mention Judging
July 9, 2012 Winner of the Innovative Minds Competition Announced.

Submission Requirements
Boards must be submitted electronically by June 15, 2012 to Gurroo LLC to qualify for the competition.  Registration must be completed prior to project submission.
1. Project Statement (300 words) .doc file format.
2. Two (2) boards, 24″ x 36″ 300 dpi submitted electronically in PDF format. Horizontal orientation.

Board Requirements
1. Renderings evoking an emotive quality using unique techniques.
2. Section, Elevation and Plan drawings, which best describe the project.
3. Diagrams describing how the project addresses the competition challenge statement.
4. Registration number located clearly in the upper right corner of both boards.
5. Correct spelling and punctuation in all text.
6. Text must be at least 12 point font.
7. English is the official language of the competition.  No other languages may be used.

For more information visit competition website

The project for the new Intermodal Train Station in Tirana intends to meet the requirement for an overall renewal of the city, in terms of comprehensive revision of the rail and road mobility. The new pole is intended to become the hub of exchanges and therefore to have the ability of connecting both the urban areas and the areas outside the city, in compatibility with the existing railway network. This is why the municipality of Tirana intends to collect all around the world ideas that could respond to the new needs introduced by the city’s current expansion. New ideas to reinterpret existing mobility systems and the relationship between the machines and men.

The presence of such an influential new core within the current urban tissue requires strategic choices that encompass great responsibility, both in terms of reorganization of a major road and railway receptivity. Unlike many European capital cities, where the presence of the railway station already weighs heavily on the central urban contexts, the competition site is located in a completion area, far away from the city centre. One of the problems that the new intermodal system should take into account is the connection with the heart of the city. By establishing easier connections to the main activities and services in the existing urban fabric, the use of new infrastructure at different times of the day will be further improved. The new intermodal centre will not only meet the standard requirements of railway stations, but it will also offer a viable alternative in respect to a functional mix that can best interpret the constant changes taking place in a city like Tirana.

In this context, the dual character that has characterized this topic for centuries becomes a design research tool aimed at finding new ideas that give an answer to this emblematic coexistence. Urban space tends to increasingly metabolize the railway system, which becomes one of the main characters of a mobile city.

1st prize: 1500 €
2nd prize: 1000 €
3rd prize: 500 €

March 1, 2012
Special registration begins – Question period is open

April 30, 2012
Special registration deadline

May 1, 2012
Early registration begins

May 31, 2012
Early registration deadline

June 1, 2012
Late registration begins

June 30, 2012
Late registration deadline

July 15, 2012
Project submission deadline

July 20, 2012
Jury meeting – Evaluation period begins

September 15, 2012
Winners’ announcement

October
Exhibition at the Tirana Architecture Week

More information: awrcompetitions.com